World News: Changing Borders

According to the author of “Strange Maps,” Frank Jacobs, countries’ borders are changing rapidly. In fact, they are dissolving and moving so rapidly that Jacobs predicts that the world’s borders will look drastically different in a decade. The interesting thing is that these “borders” are more so theoretical than physical. It is the citizens of these nations that are causing these interesting shifts. This border-watching gives rise to many geopolitical tactics. In other words, certain nations are doing whatever they can to protect the boundaries of their country, and stop the nation from becoming smaller, or dissolving into another nation. Some areas that are being closely watched include the Syrian-Iraqi border and the Chinese border on the South China Sea. According to Jacobs, “border-quakes” cause a lot of commotion. Unlike geological breaks in land, these borders are easy to change but impossible to get rid of. “Strange Maps” is an atlas, or collection of maps, that are very unusual—not exactly what you would find in a textbook. One example is a map of the world in which the land and bodies of water are inverted.